Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Unz wrong about effects of bilingual education

Ron Unz thinks that because of Proposition 227, which dismantled bilingual education in California, children are learning English better and faster ("Senate race to replace Barbara Boxer just got more interesting," March 21). This is not true for California, nor is it true for other states in which bilingual education was eliminated. Also, study after study has shown that children in bilingual programs do better in English reading than similar students in all-English "immersion" programs.
In a recent analysis, Cal State San Marcos Professors Grace and David McField examined all available studies comparing bilingual education and English immersion. They concluded that when both program quality and research quality are considered, the superiority of bilingual education was considerably larger than previously reported.

Bilingual programs, when set up and evaluated correctly, do not prevent the acquisition of English – they facilitate it.

Stephen Krashen

Sources
Children not learning English faster: Crawford, J. and Krashen, S. 2015. English Learners in American Classrooms. Portland: DiversitylearningK12)
A recent analysis: McField, G. and McField, D. 2014. "The consistent outcome of bilingual education programs: A meta-analysis of meta-analyses." In: The Miseducation of English Learners, edited by Grace McField, and published by Information Age Publishing.